For me, reading a novel is the perfect way to get to know another person, seeing the world through their eyes, without risk and without even getting up from a chair. It’s a way to know another place, a different period of time, through the experience of authentic characters who may be very much like me or not at all.

I love reading 19th and early 20th century British and American fiction because the way of life is slower, and the characters inhabit their physical spaces more fully somehow. I can see and touch and smell it all along with them. Despite the slower pace of life, the issues are weighty, and the struggles may literally be for survival.

As much as I love long novels, I also love some children’s and young adult novels. The best ones treat children as critical thinkers, taking responsibility for their own actions, open to new ideas and new vocabulary.